Apertured films are used in various industrial and consumer products sectors. For example, apertured films are used to produce disposable sheets, disposable garments and hygiene and sanitary products, such as sanitary napkins, incontinence pads and baby diapers.
Apertured films can be manufactured using various techniques. For example, one technique for forming apertured webs entails extruding a plastic sheet of film using traditional film extrusion techniques (for example, a thin sheet of LDPE delivered through a cast or blown extrusion head) and aperturing the film using solid or molten phase forming techniques as known in the art (e.g., heat and differential pressure via vacuum as described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,957,414 to Bussey et. al.; water perforation techniques as described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,609,518 to Curro et. al.; thermo-mechanical contact perforation (e.g., pin perforation, engraved cylinders, etc. often in contact with smooth cylinders as described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,814,389 to Giacometti, U.S. Pat. No. 4,128,679 to Pohland, U.S. Pat. No. 4,886,632 to Van Iten, etc.) In some instances, the film may be textured prior to perforation via mechanical or water embossing, or other methods as are known in the art.
However limitations of current topsheets include providing softness appropriate to skin contact while still absorbing fluid and maintaining the feeling and conveying the sensation of dryness. Often, as a consequence, dryness is maintained but the topsheet web and/or a product made from the web isn't perceived as soft—the web or product may have a stiff, scratchy or similar, generally unpleasant, sensation. Conversely a web or product may obtain desired softness but provide an uncomfortable wetness sensation.